LAST BLADE 2: HEART OF THE SAMURAI ARTICLES

August 2, 2001 - Although the PlayStation showed off a few 2D fighting games and the PS2 will be starting something of a 2D fighting game line-up with Guilty Gear X and Capcom Vs SNK 2, 2D fighting fans know that the Dreamcast was the home of the best-looking and playing 2D fighting games. Sure, only Capcom and SNK believe in the power of 2D nowadays, but there's no system that demonstrates the speed, animation fluidity, and depth of gameplay from 2D games than SEGA's white wonder. This makes the argument in seeing either Guilty Gear X and/or Capcom Vs SNK 2 on the Dreamcast that much stronger for it would be altogether right if the one of the last Dreamcast games were either the beautiful Guilty Gear X or the fighter's dream sequel, Capcom Vs SNK 2. Lost among these two fighting games is SNK's 2D weapon based fighter, The Last Blade 2: Heart of the Samurai. It's easy to see why SNK's great weapon-based game isn't receiving much attention: it doesn't display the crisp and crazy visual style of Guilty Gear X, nor does it have the big name characters found in Capcom Vs SNK 2 (though surprisingly, Hibiki is in the line-up in CVS2). That's really a shame because The Last Blade 2: Heart of the Samurai delivers all the goods - plenty nice visuals, interesting characters, cool style, and a depth of gameplay that rivals any 2D fighting game every made ¿ and should, in the least, be given a good look before you pass on it for the another mediocre title.

July 31, 2001 - Fans of the 2D fighting arena know that the Dreamcast was only system that really supported the 2D fighting genre with great support and while the 2D fighting titles aren't showing up quite as frequentlly as they did earlier in the Dreamcast life, Last Blade 2: Heart Of The Samurai will be shipped to stores near the end of this week and should be available in video game stores everywhere early next week. We'll have our full review of what may be the last 2D fighting game on the Dreamcast later this week.

June 14, 2001 - When the Dreamcast is truly gone, there will be several reasons why we mourn its loss. For those old-school pugilists, the Dreamcast was pretty much the last bastion for 2D games. In a time where a lot of today's gamers equate 3D as being better, the Dreamcast hosted a number of wonderfully hand-drawn 2D games - Marvel Vs Capcom 2, Guilty Gear X, and Capcom Vs SNK are a few of them. Though we haven't seen a 2D game in awhile, it's nice to know some companies believe in both keeping the Dreamcast faith alive, as well as keeping it right with 2D - more specifically, Agetec with their E3 2001 announcement of Last Blade 2: Heart of the Samurai. More than just a pretty 2D SNK fighter, Last Blade 2also demonstrates wonderful gameplay mechanics that rival any fighting game to date.